A Purple Place for Dying finds Travis McGee witness to a murder he can't prove and a kidnapping nobody wants to believe. McGee becomes a pawn between a wealthy Southwestern patriarch, the law, and a mysterious gang bent on insurance fraud. Just the kind of thing McGee revels in!

The Quick Red Fox: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 4

It was the standard blackmail scheme. For years, sultry Lysa Dean's name on a movie had meant a bonanza at the box office. Now a set of pictures could mean the end of her career.When first approached for help by lovely Dana Holtzer, Lysa's personal secretary, Travis McGee is thoroughly turned off by the tacky details. But being low on cash, and tenderly attracted by the star's intriguingly remote secretary, McGee sets out to locate his suspects -- only to find that they start turning up dead!

Nightmare in Pink: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 2

Nina - a career girl living alone in Manhattan - offers Travis McGee companionship and the first loose thread in the elaborate fabric of a gigantic swindle. Now, she's leading McGee on a wild and tortuous chase into the decadent world of high society, the ruthless world of big money, and the weird world of hallucinatory drugs.

A Deadly Shade of Gold: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 5

When McGee picks up the phone and hears a voice from the past, he can't help it. He has to meddle. Especially when he has the chance to reunite Sam Taggart, a reckless, restless man like himself, with the woman who's still waiting for him. But what begins as a simple matchmaking scheme soon becomes a bloody chase that takes McGee to Mexico, a beautiful country - and one from which he hopes to return alive.

Bright Orange for the Shroud: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 6

Travis things he's in for a quiet summer until a walking zombie of a man, Arthur Wilkinson, stumbles aboard The Busted Flush. He's the latest victim of a fragile-looking blond sexpot who uses the blackest arts of love to lure unsuspecting suckers into a web of sordid schemes. Gone, suddenly, are the lazy, hazy days of summer as Travis becomes embroiled in one of the most dangerous, dirtiest cases of his career.

Darker Than Amber: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 7

Travis McGee never shies away from damsels in distress. But this Eurasian beauty was different. When Travis and Meyer rescued her from the water, she had a block of cement wired to her feet, and she wasn't so much grateful as ready to snare them in a murder racket to end all murders.

One Fearful Yellow Eye: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 8

How to you extort $600,000 from a dying man? Someone had done it very quietly and skilfully to the husband of Travis McGee's ex-girlfriend. McGee flies to Chicago to help untangle the mess and discovers that, although Dr. Fortner Geis had led an exemplary life, there were those who'd take advantage of one "indiscretion" and bring down the whole family. McGee also discovers he likes a few members of the family far too much to let that happen....

The Deep Blue Good-By: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 1

He's a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He's also a knight errant who's wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out, and his rule is simple: he'll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.

Pale Gray for Guilt: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 9

The men who killed Tush Bannon knew he was a nice guy with a nice wife and three nice kids - trying to run a small marina on the Florida coast. They also knew he was in the way of a big land development scheme. Once they killed him, they figured they were on easy street. But Tush Bannon was Travis McGee's friend, and McGee could be one tough adversary when protecting a widow and her kids.

The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 10

Helena Pearson. Undeniably beautiful... indisputably rich... incredibly wanton... the perfect client for Travis McGee. He did a big favor for her husband and then for the lady herself. Now Helena is dead, and McGee finds out that she had one last request to make of him: find out why her beautiful daughter, Maurie, keeps trying to kill herself. So, half-convinced that Maurie needs a good doctor and not a devil-may-care beach bum, McGee makes his way to the prosperous town of Fort Courtney, Florida, a respectable, booming, deadly little place.

Dress Her in Indigo: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 11

A wealthy old man laid up in the hospital is desperate to understand the last months of his daughter's life before she was killed in a car crash in Mexico. It was puzzling. She'd cleaned out her considerable bank account, left Miami and hadn't been heard from again. Travis McGee ventures into the steep hills and strange backwoods of Oaxaca through a bizarre world of dropouts, drug freaks, and kinky rich people - and begins to suspect the beautiful girl's death was no accident.

The Long Lavender Look: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 12

A lovely young girl steps in front of Travis McGee's headlights. McGee misses the girl but lands in 10 feet of swamp water. As he's limping along the deserted road, someone in an old truck takes a few shots at him. And, when he goes to the local sheriff to complain, the intrepid Travis McGee finds himself arrested and charged with murder. And he can't help but ask himself, "is this what they call southern hospitality?"

The Scarlet Ruse: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 14

Travis McGee is too busy with his houseboat to pay attention to the little old man with the missing postage stamps. Except these are no ordinary stamps. They are rare stamps. Four hundred thousand dollars worth of rare. And if McGee doesn't recognize their value, perhaps Mary Alice McDermit, a six-foot knockout who knows all the ways to a boat bum's heart, will. Only it's not McGee's heart that's in danger. Because a syndicate killer has put a contract on McGee.

A Tan and Sandy Silence: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 13

Private eye Travis McGee outwaits and outwits a deranged killer as he searches for a missing wife on a remote Caribbean island, where he also tangles with a baby-faced businessman with a taste for murder.

The Turquoise Lament: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 15

Now that Linda "Pidge" Lewellen is grown up, she tells Travis McGee, once her girlhood idol, that either she's going crazy or Howie, her affable ex-jock of a husband, is trying to kill her. McGee checks things out, and gives Pidge the all clear. But when Pidge and Howie sail away to kiss and make up, McGee has second thoughts. If only he can get to Pidge before he has time for any more thinking.

The Empty Copper Sea: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 17

Van Harder, once a hard drinker, has found religion. But that doesn't keep folks from saying he murdered his employer, Hub Lawless, whose body hasn't been found. To clear his name, and clear up the mystery, Van asks friend-in-need Travis McGee to find out what really happened. What McGee finds is that Timber Bay is a tough town to get a break in when you're a stranger asking questions. But what he also finds is that, dead or alive, Hub Lawless is worth a lot of money.

The Lonely Silver Rain: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 21

Searching for a wealthy friend's yacht, Travis McGee puts himself square in the center of the international cocaine trade, and finds himself the target of some of the most ruthless villains he's ever met. Contemplating his own mortality for the first time, Travis McGee discovers amid all the danger the astonishing surprise behind the cat-shaped pipe cleaners someone is leaving at his door.

The Dreadful Lemon Sky: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 16

Hero of The Dreadful Lemon Sky is Travis McGee, a man of universal interest and independent means who lives on an old houseboat he won in a poker game. One evening a young woman shows up with a suitcase full of cash. McGee agrees to be bagman.She tells him what to do if she doesn't return. When she doesn't, McGee is left alone to deal with an intrigue that involves drugs, fear, passion, and death.

Free Fall in Crimson: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 19

This time out, McGee comes close to losing his status as a living legend when he agrees to track down the killers who brutally murdered an ailing millionaire. For starters, he renews an unfinished adventure with a famous - and oversexed - Hollywood actress, who leads him into a very nasty nest of murderers involving a motorcycle gang, pornographic movies, and mad balloonists. And McGee relearns the old lesson - that only when he comes close to the edge of death does he feel he completely alive.

Cinnamon Skin: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 20

When Travis McGee's friend Meyer lent his boat to his niece Norma and her new husband Evan, the boat exploded out in the waters of the Florida Keys. Travis McGee thinks it's no accident, and clues lead him to ponder possibilities of drugs and also to wonder where Evan was when his wife was killed.

The Green Ripper: A Travis McGee Novel, Book 18

Beautiful girls always grace the Florida beaches; strolling, sailing, relaxing at the many parties on Travis McGee's houseboat, The Busted Flush. McGee was too smart - and had been around too long - for many of them to touch his heart. Now, however, there was Gretel. She had discovered the key to McGee - to all of him - and now he had something to hope for. Then, terribly, unexpectedly, she was dead. From a mysterious illness, or so they said. But McGee knew the truth; that Gretel had been murdered.

The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything

A classic novel by John D. MacDonald with an exclusive introduction written and read by Dean Koontz. Once an ordinary math teacher, Omar Krepps developed a knack for gambling, amassed a fabulous fortune, and spent the rest of his life traveling the world and giving away his millions. Upon his death, however, Krepps bequeaths nothing to his nephew and only living blood relative, Kirby Winter - nothing, that is, except an antique watch and a sealed letter to be opened after one year. But Kirby has much more in his possession than he realizes. The watch has the power to manipulate time.

Dead Low Tide: A Novel

A classic novel by John D. MacDonald with an exclusive introduction written and read by Dean Koontz. A college graduate and amateur fisherman, Andy McClintock is stuck toiling in the office of a construction company. But when Andy tries to quit, his boss offers him a promotion and a raise - and then promptly kills himself with a harpoon gun. At least, that's what it looks like, until the police rule it homicide - with the murder weapon belonging to Andy.

A Flash of Green: A Novel

A classic novel by John D. MacDonald with an exclusive introduction written and read by Dean Koontz.A Flash of Green tells the gripping story of small-town corruption and two people brave enough to fight back, featuring many of the themes John D. MacDonald explored better than anyone in his legendary career as a leading crime novelist. The opportunists have taken over Palm City. Silent and deadly, like the snakes that infest the nearby swamps, they lay hidden from view, waiting for the right moment to strike. Political subterfuge has already eased the residents toward selling out.

On the Make

The classic John D. MacDonald thriller about a Korean War vet searching for a stolen fortune in a small town. Our edition comes with two excellent bonus essays, a biography of John D. MacDonald, and an exploration of the paperback revolution of the mid-20th century.

Publisher's Summary

A Purple Place for Dying finds Travis McGee witness to a murder he can't prove and a kidnapping nobody wants to believe. McGee becomes a pawn between a wealthy Southwestern patriarch, the law, and a mysterious gang bent on insurance fraud. Just the kind of thing McGee revels in!

These are classic mystery stories written at a time when $10,000.00 was equal to $100,000.00 in today dollars. Also men and women had different rolls. If you take that into the balance of the story, you can enjoy the mystery, and how Trav solves each problem he encounters. I have started with book one, and have now completed book 7. They all get better I have found. Just have to get used to some of the dated language and interplay between characters. It's not 2012, but late 1960's. I still find the stories really well written and have enough mystery and strange turns of events to make each Travis McGee story a gem.

between John D. MacDonald and Robert Petkoff ! I read all the Travis McGee books back in the eighties, and now am rereading, er listening to, them, one by one. No question but that popular attitudes (towards women, for example) have changed immensely since these were written back in the fifties and sixties, but some things never change, and it is these things that interested MacDonald. Now they're period pieces, but the crisp prose and keen insight bestow extra value and style. Recommended.

This one has our "Beach Bum" hero in a western city surrounded by desert. The action starts off fast and every time I thought I had figured out who the bad guy was, they got killed! This story really keeps you thinking!

My first of this series but definitely not my last. Great who done its, with a fantastic lead man. None of them are very long and will be nice brain cleansers in between some heavier longer listens. The narrator does an outstanding job with all the characters voices and is a definite asset to bringing the story to life. Good reviews from Stephen king and Dean Koontz.

What a series this is turning out to be. I am enjoying every aspect of the Travis McGee books. Beautifully written -- no mere narration here -- but phrases replete with layers of meaning and images. Thoughtful life philosophies are thrown into the mix and offer depth to McGee's motives. The characters are fully engaging -- ok, questionable stereotyping at time, but hey, these books were written between 1964 and 1986 and reflect the times. And what times: private investigators in all sorts of trouble and without mobile phones, the internet -- and roaming throughout society unimpeded by privacy policies and call centres.Furthermore, Life is interpreted by Travis Mcgee with practical philosophies based on really living.The plots are intriguing and plausibler. The author gently concludes each novel -- lets the main theme ebb away, and the characters have time to themselves to assimilate the invariably tempestuous events into their lives.

And finally to the narrator. Well, he has had mixed reviews on Audible, but and I think he is excellent. Firstly he manages the voices very well. Secondly he has an easy, relaxed pace that reflects the text. And most importantly, he sounds as if he understands and respects the writer and what he is setting out to shares.

McGee leaves the boats and beaches of Florida for the great Southwest. This book; written in the mid sixties. Thus it contains some jarringly outdated ideas and opinions. McGee's Freudian analysis of Isobel is one such example. the sheriff openly admitting that he will be coming down on McGee if he bothers the rich husband of Travis' client. However the writing style and abilities of John D. MacDonald are good enough to overcome fifty years of change. In fact I have books of his from the early fifties. In these he displays the "red menace" paranoia common to the era. Combined with the misogynistic belief that smacking the wife around to maintain is something that must be done. Despite these shortcomings I have yet to read a bad MacDonald book. A Purple Place For Dying is one of better offerings among the early Travis McGee series.

Yes. Except for The Hardy Boys, Travis McGee was my first serial character. His villains are bad, his damsels are vulnerable and this man knows what his values are. Who else would hit a bad guy with a sapphire? Plus he has his own brand of sex therapy. What's not to like? I still love to hear Travis' thoughts on the condition of our changing culture. Was it really so obvious then? In the 70's a reviewer described John D MacDonald as perhaps not even the best MacDonald currently writing in the genre. Now I can't remember the reviewer or the other MacDonald.

What did you like best about this story?

Revisiting an old friend.

Have you listened to any of Robert Petkoff???s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. I'll be looking for more.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

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